Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

What is "Blink" about?
It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good.

"Blink" is concerned with the smallest components of our everyday lives--with the content and origin of those instantaneous impressions and conclusions that bubble up whenever we meet a new person, or confront a complex situation, or have to make a decision under conditions of stress. Its time we paid more attention to those fleeting moments. If we did, it would change the way wars are fought, the kind of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted and on and on--and if you combine all those little changes together you end up with a different and happier world.
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Malcolm Gladwell (born September 3, 1963) is a British-born Canadian journalist, author, and pop sociologist based in New York City. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He is best known as for his books The Tipping Point (2000), Blink (2005), Outliers (2008), and What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures (2009).